Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:

Convex quadrilateral BCDEBCDE lies in the plane. Lines EBEB and DCDC intersect at AA, with AB=2AB = 2, AC=5AC = 5, AD=200AD = 200, AE=500AE = 500, and cosBAC=79\cos \angle BAC = \frac{7}{9}. What is the largest number of nonoverlapping circles that can lie in quadrilateral BCDEBCDE such that all of them are tangent to both lines BEBE and CDCD?

Solution

Solution:

Let θ=BAC\theta = \angle BAC, and cosθ=79\cos \theta = \frac{7}{9} implies cosθ2=1+792=223\cos \frac{\theta}{2} = \sqrt{\frac{1 + \frac{7}{9}}{2}} = \frac{2\sqrt{2}}{3}; sinθ2=13\sin \frac{\theta}{2} = \frac{1}{3}; BC=4+252(2)(5)79=113BC = \sqrt{4 + 25 - 2(2)(5) \frac{7}{9}} = \frac{11}{3}.

Let O1O_1 be the excircle of ABC\triangle ABC tangent to lines ABAB and ACAC, and let r1r_1 be its radius; let O1O_1 be tangent to line ABAB at point P1P_1. Then AP1=AB+BC+CA2AP_1 = \frac{AB + BC + CA}{2} and r1AP1=tanθ2=122r1=16322\frac{r_1}{AP_1} = \tan \frac{\theta}{2} = \frac{1}{2\sqrt{2}} \Longrightarrow r_1 = \frac{16}{3 \cdot 2\sqrt{2}}.

Let OnO_n be a circle tangent to On1O_{n-1} and the lines ABAB and ACAC, and let rnr_n be its radius; let OnO_n be tangent to line ABAB at point PnP_n. Then OnPnAOn=sinθ2=13\frac{O_nP_n}{AO_n} = \sin \frac{\theta}{2} = \frac{1}{3}; since APnOnAPn1On1\triangle AP_nO_n \sim \triangle AP_{n-1}O_{n-1} and OnOn1=rn+rn1O_nO_{n-1} = r_n + r_{n-1}, we have

13=OnPnAOn=rnAOn1+On1On=rn3rn1+rn+rn1rn=2rn1=2n116322. \frac{1}{3} = \frac{O_nP_n}{AO_n} = \frac{r_n}{AO_{n-1} + O_{n-1}O_n} = \frac{r_n}{3r_{n-1} + r_n + r_{n-1}} \Longrightarrow r_n = 2r_{n-1} = 2^{n-1} \frac{16}{3 \cdot 2\sqrt{2}}.

We want the highest nn such that OnO_n is contained inside ADE\triangle ADE. Let the incircle of ADE\triangle ADE be tangent to ADAD at XX; then the inradius of ADE\triangle ADE is
AXtanθ2=500+20011002222=500322. \frac{AX}{\tan \frac{\theta}{2}} = \frac{\frac{500 + 200 - \frac{1100}{2}}{2\sqrt{2}}}{2} = \frac{500}{3 \cdot 2\sqrt{2}}.

We want the highest nn such that rn500322r_n \leq \frac{500}{3 \cdot 2\sqrt{2}}; thus 2n116500n=52^{n-1} \cdot 16 \leq 500 \Longrightarrow n = 5.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.